The social media network X has caused widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
